Many types of ratchet wrenches and tools of related utility have been described in the relevant art. Such socket wrenches are widely used to drive any of a selectable number of sockets, and many of the wrenches are provided with means by which the torsional drive direction of the wrench itself may be readily reversed. In a great number of the various ratchet drive wrenches currently available the mode of drive reversal is rotatably to shift a bar or pin or rod affixed to a head or face plate of the wrench whereby an operative pawl is shifted between a first mode which effectuates driving in one annular direction to a second mode which reverses the direction of annular drive. A generally common feature of many ratchet drive wrenches is that they include, at the driving boss or stud which engages the driven socket, a detent often taking the form of a ball or pellet. Some of the wrenches include the additional feature of being able to effect a simple quick release of the detent by means of what has been referred to as a "push button" release mechanism. Examples of such mechanisms are shown in Roberts U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,318, Joliff U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,587, and Hasnar U.S. Pat. No. 3,532,013. The disclosures of these patents are hereby specifically incorporated herein by reference to the extent that they are not inconsistent herewith. The latter two of the patents also describe mechanisms by which the rotational drive mode of the wrenches is conveniently reversed.
A typical direction drive reversing pawl-actuating mechanism is shown in Rueb U.S. Pat. No. 2,188,846.
Referring more particularly to ratchet wrenches of the type which embody both the feature of ratchet drive reversibility by means of a rotatable bar in combination with quick release socket capabilities, it will be appreciated that the latter feature necessitates the utilization of a spring mechanism to bias the detent control shaft and related components to a detent-restraining position in which the detent or ball is urged into locking engagement with the socket seated on the drive boss, stud, or shank of the ratchet wrench. One of the effects of this mechanical arrangement, and typically as illustrated in Joliff U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,587, is that the spring which biases the socket release assembly inherently impresses what results in a frictional load on the rotary mechanism by which the driving direction of the ratchet wrench is reversed. As a result, it is necessary to apply greater rotational force to the finger-actuated ratchet direction control bar or rod in order to rotate the internal mechanisms and to shift the internal pawl. It is to the resolution of this problem in wrenches of the type in which rotation of the head effects the direction drive reversal and in which depression of the head effects a release of the socket carried by the wrench that the present invention is directed.